Indian Theater In English

Indian Theater In English

Indian Theater

• The history of theater in India is very old. It is believed that the development of theatrical art first took place in India.
• There are some dialogues of Yama and Yami, Pururava and Urvashi etc. in certain sutras of Rigveda. In these dialogues, people find the sign of the development of the drama.
• It is estimated that by taking inspiration from these dialogues, people composed plays and theatrical art developed. In due course Bharatmuni gave it a classical form.

History of Indian Theater

• According to some scholars, Indian theater originated in the 15th century BC. Vedic texts such as the Rigveda provide evidence of drama plays being performed during sacrificial ceremonies.
• The dialogues described in the texts range from one-person monologues to three-person dialogues such as those between Indra, Indrani and Vrishakapi.
• Nandikeshwar who wrote Abhinaya Darpan. ‘The Mirror of Gesture’ which itself was based on an abridgement of a longer text of 400 verses called Bharatarnava, seems to be pre-Bharata according to some scholars.
• The most concrete example of Nandikeshvara’s teachings has survived thanks to Bhasa.
• The Natyashastra, which dates to 200 BCE, though mentions various teachers and calls them Acharyas, does not name them, but it still ends with a reference to a lost text by the dramatist Kohala.

Ancient Theater of India

• Seeing the cave of Sitavanga gives some idea of ​​the nature of the old Natyamandaps. This cave is 13.8 meters long and 7.2 meters wide.
• There are stairs on the left side to enter inside, through which probably the actors used to enter. There is a theater arrangement in the inner part.
• It is made of three stairs (platforms) of 2.3 meters wide, which are 75 cm from each other. are high
• There are two holes in front of the platforms, in which curtains were probably used to fix bamboo or wooden poles. The place for the audience is like a Greek amphitheatre. 50 people can sit here.
• The form of this primitive theater also matches with the developed form described above. Bharata Natyashastra also gives us an indication of the ancient form of Natyamandapa.
• The pavilions of the tribals used to be in the form of caves, but the Aryans used to work only with temporary tent-like theater halls according to their ashram civilization.
• Bharata Natyashastra is believed to have been compiled in the first or second century AD. Bharata has adopted the form of theater halls of both tribals and Aryans.

Current Indian Theater

• The history of modern Indian theatrical literature is not more than a century old.
• Due to the bigotry of Islam, drama did not get the same kind of encouragement during the Mughal period as other arts received from the Mughal rulers.
• For this reason, in the two hundred and fifty years of the Mughal period, the theaters or auditoriums of the Indian tradition completely disappeared.
• But Indian theater survived through folk art like Ram Leela etc. When the dominance of the British prevailed in the country, many things of their country entered our country.
• Western plays were also introduced for their entertainment. For the performance of their plays, they combined theaters here, which are more famous by the name of theatres.
• The first theater of this type is said to have been built in Calcutta, long before the Battle of Plassey.
• A second theater opened in 1795 AD. Its name was ‘Lefed Fair’. After this, ‘Atheneum’ in 1812 AD and ‘Chowringhee’ theaters opened in the second year.
• Thus Bengal first came in contact with western theater and gave a new form to the theater for its plays on the lines of western theatres.
• On the other hand, the Parsis in Bombay gave birth to a new type of theater for Indian plays, modeled after these foreign theaters.
• Parsi drama companies presented their plays by making the theater attractive and entertaining.